There are a few race locations throughout California that racers look forward to attending, and one of the favorites in Northern California is Mossdale Lake located in Lathrop, CA. During the week, Mossdale Lake is an active sand quarry providing the nearby communities with sand for many different applications in California’s Central Valley and Bay Areas.
A few times a year, this body of water will also host wakeboard competitions and boat races, as well as hosting some nighttime jet ski racing in the recent past. If you are familiar with the jet ski races back in the late 80’s early 90’s at Oakwood Lake – Manteca Waterslides in Manteca – you’ll recognize the area, just with more homes popping up!
This past August 3–4, the AWSA JetJam Hydro-Turf Racing series presented by Bud Light made their second-to-last stop for the 2019 season. This venue is set up for watersports with a centralized location, a grassy hill along the beach and always has water – even with California’s past droughts. Having solidified itself as a racer’s favorite, Mossdale Lake is here to stay and never disappoints; and with the house packed both Friday and Saturday nights, next season is already anticipated!
After the riders meeting concluded Saturday morning, the JetJam red shirt crew took their places and the first class of the weekend took to the line. The national anthem echoed along the toy haulers and trailers, families and racers were now watching the tower with Bill Austin ready to drop the green flag. Vintage X2 is always a NorCal favorite and didn’t disappoint this weekend either. #16 Tyler Toline, #216 Blaise Sommers and #224 Kyle Cameron took the podium.
Next was Vintage 550 with racers from all over, even Matt “AquaNutz” Gerwin made the trek out from Ohio! #27 Bryson Olson, #SRB2 Mike Prodanivich & #681 Eddie Eagleton were the top 3. Sport GP2 Spec was a Yamaha/Sea-Doo/Yamaha finish with #951 Norm Yee, #17 Nick Leseney and #15 Josh Vidal were the top three for the first day of the weekend.
The Juniors were on hand as well, showing the beach why they are the future of the sport. #7 Dominic Cannady, #580 Justin Navarro and #18 Jaedyn Miller, finishing 1st, 2nd & 3rd were true pros showing up to the line on time and raced with clean lines. Speaking of Pros, #149 Pete Zernik and #182 Brock Austin did some slicing and dicing on the water in a combined class with #831 Tallon Chambers, #26 Caleb Kile and #495 Seth Fuhrman.
Tallon, Caleb and Seth took this chance to learn the tricks of Pete and Brock, and I’m sure they will all be in one class soon! The big horsepower runabouts were in attendance at Mossdale too, and you could hear all 7 of those 4-strokes pumping raw power whether it was Kawasaki, Sea-Doo or Yamaha. #866 of Dan Silva and his Kawasaki woke up the lake with his GP1 Pro Open Runabout. #81 Rob Asmega Jr. on a borrowed Sea-Doo and #983 Mike Habel on his Kawasaki led the others to the checkers.
Saturday night’s food, fun, families, fireworks and a movie were on hand while others wrenched on their skis or visited local restaurants in nearby Tracy, Lathrop or Manteca along Interstate 5. Local freestylers took to the lake and put on a show for the beach
We all know how Sunday morning rolls out for a jet ski race and that’s with a riders meeting and a quick practice for the racers who missed Saturday, needed some more practice or wanted to make sure their repairs from the night before were successful. Sunday also has the traditional devotional performed by Caleb Kile. Once the AWSA JetJam red shirt crew had their coffee, and the water safety officials were on the water, Lisa Price – who was onsite announcing – called the riders to the line to start racing.
#702 Thomas Pagen with his 1050cc 4-stroke GP1 led #831 Tallon Chambers and #605 Seth Furhman. Runabout GP6 800 Limited was a class to watch all weekend, as #3 Nick Leseney, #222 Jim Alamillo and #9 Krissy Vaughn put on a battle and showed the beach the competitiveness of the class.
Vintage 650/750 had a stacked class both days but the battles between #27 Byson Olson, #117 James Hendry and #428 Jo Ochoa were quite the sight, a JS hull, a 750SX and a 650SX all competing for bragging rights. Congrats too all the winners for each day of racing!
As the weekend’s awards were handed out, raffle prizes were won and everyone packed up for the ride home, JetJam staff took the opportunity to enjoy the private water and pack up the supplies. Check out www.jetjam.racing for full details. Look to the AWSA website for series standings and more information for upcoming events.
All photography provided by Kenny Wong
